Why, indeed? No strategic value to it, and has been pointed out on this thread, let's say it didn't do much to dissuade the allies from firebombing Dresden, etc. just to inflict civilian casualties.
Could we just go for the simple answer that the Nazis were evil f***s, terrorists who just wanted to kill people just because? Would it be instructive to our situation?
“Could we just go for the simple answer that the Nazis were evil f***s, terrorists who just wanted to kill people just because? Would it be instructive to our situation?”
It sure fits in with another part of the V-2 program. It holds the dubious distinction of being the only program that more people died in its production as slaves than in its use in the war.
Hitler thought he could break the will of the British people to resist. He never imagined the British would be in a position to retaliate.
Every ton of bombs scattered over England by the Luftwaffe’s inaccurate and indiscriminate bombing was requited by 350 tons dropped much more precisely by the RAF and USAAF. The British were largely out for revenge, the U.S. were looking for military targets, but both had a mix of targets.
The U.S. Eighth Air Force targeted Berlin, because it was the only city that the Germans would defend after 1943. The point of the attacks was to destroy the Luftwaffe’s fighter wing preparatory to D-Day. Berlin was attacked to open the way to Normandy.
In 1944, German fighter losses prior to D-Day were severe:
Month %Fighters %Pilots
Feb 33 18
March 56 22
April 43 20
May 50 25
German pilot losses could not be replaced. They had no pipeline to supply well trained new pilots, and many instructors became causalities themselves.
Takes 2 years minimum to train a combat pilot. Accelerated training programs just got a lot of newbies killed.
The Japanese solution was the Kamikaze — a human cruise missile. Even those pilots we so bad that they had trouble finding & hitting the targets.